1000 - Battle of Svolder, Baltic Sea: King Olaf on board the Long Serpent defeated in one of the greatest naval battles of the Viking Age.
1776 - Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies)
1817 - Alexander Twilight, probably first African American to graduate from a US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College
1914 - First fully mechanized unit in the British Army created – the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade (WWI)
1993 - Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition
1998 – Special Prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr sent to Congress the report on his investigation into the actions of U.S. President Bill Clinton in the Whitewater affair and subsequent matters, including Clinton’s improper sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky.
2015 -Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain’s longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria
Births & Deaths:
1941 – American singer and songwriter Otis Redding, considered one of the great soul stylists of the 1960s, was born.
1966 – American comedian and actor Adam Sandler, who was known for his portrayal of infantile but endearing characters, was born.
1976 – Marxist revolutionary Mao Zedong, who died this day in 1976, emerged as the undisputed Chinese Communist Party leader following the Long March (1934–35) and dominated China in the period after the communist takeover in 1949.
Film & TV:
1951 – 1st broadcast of “Love of Life” on CBS-TV
1956 - Elvis Presley appears on the Ed Sullivan Show for the 1st time
Sport
1972 - Soviet Union beats the United States 51-50 in the most controversial game in international basketball history; with US leading 50-49 the final 3 seconds is replayed 3 times until the Soviets finally win
